Carson says charities better than gov’t at lifting poor out of poverty

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is making a nine-stop swing through Iowa that started Thursday morning in McGregor and will end Saturday evening at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. Carson says charities do a better job of helping pull people out of poverty than the government does.

“I don’t want to take away government programs that are safety nets, but what I do want to do is provide ladders of opportunity to allow people to move from a state of dependency to independence and being part of the fabric of America,” Carson says. “That’s what American exceptionalism is all about.”

Carson has said all Americans should pay taxes, but he says the tax system should be fairer, simpler and more equitable. Individual Americans should be able to fill out their tax return in 15 minutes, according to Carson.

Carson says the federal tax on corporations is the highest in the developed world and, as president, he’d try this: “What I would do is offer a six-month hiatus, tax-free, to allow that money to be repatriated in our country with the only stipulation being that 10 percent of it had to be used in enterprise zones and to create jobs for people who are on welfare or unemployed. That would be the biggest stimulus since FDR’s ‘New Deal’ program and it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers one penny.”

Carson made his comments Thursday night as he addressed a crowd of about 200 people in Spencer.